Itachi's Dubious Plan
by PandoraVII
Summary: Dissatisfied with his brother's defection from Konoha, Itachi comes up with a plan that will hopefully bring him back. Unfortunately, Naruto finds himself caught in the middle. For a genius, Itachi can sure come up with the weirdest ideas. Three-shot.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Well, this is my first published fanfic; I hope everyone finds it enjoyable! It's a three part story, the sections may vary in length; the next part will be out in a few days. This was intended to be gen, heavy on the bromance, but can be read as preslash if you prefer. I tried to write all character's reactions to things as IC as possible considering the situations, but some OOCness may be present nevertheless. Also, there will be no interaction between Sasuke and Itachi, unfortunately.

There might be some continuity errors, but in this fic, the following is important:

- Sasuke is still with Orochimaru, hasn't formed Hebi yet, and has fought Naruto before this point in time after the Valley of the End battle.

- Shukaku has already been extracted from Gaara.

- Itachi's behaviour might be a little strange, but I'm assuming that wise and intelligent as he is, his heart is not made of stone, so the killing of his entire clan probably made him at least a little bit unhinged.

**Warnings:** Some blood and gore. Cheesiness abounds.

**Disclaimer:** Naruto and its characters is the property of Masashi Kishimoto. I'm only borrowing and torturing them a little.

* * *

_**Itachi's Dubious Plan**_

_**By PandoraVII**_

Naruto had no idea how he ended up on the forest floor. All he knew was that a moment ago, he'd been _that _close to shoving his Rasengan into Itachi's face; then there was a red hot flash of pain that made his vision white out, and the rest of the world disappeared for a moment that felt to Naruto like an eternity.

Now, as his awareness returned, he felt damp, winter-sun warmed earth beneath him, along with the prickle of dried leaf stems and a twig or two pricking various areas of his skin through his clothes. That and the sharp stone digging into his shoulder was the least of his concern, though.

What _really _caught his attention was his chest feeling like it was being split open from whatever Itachi had done.

His sight was the last thing to come back to him, and he found himself staring up at the canopy of trees above him. The sun winked weakly though the gently moving leaves. From his peaceful point of view, none of the battle that had previously occurred could be suspected, but Naruto knew that more than a few trees were levelled in their clash. He felt bad about the trees, but they would be replaced soon enough.

Secretly, Naruto would've been more disappointed if he hadn't managed to level a few with all the power he'd been putting into it.

Movement in is peripheral vision alerted Naruto to Itachi's approach. Naruto didn't know where he had disappeared to, and could only assume that whatever Itachi had done had thrown his body a fair distance for Itachi to have to walk to him. The red-eyed Akatsuki member made no effort to hide his presence as he came closer, leaves crunching here and there under his sandals. Naruto tried to lift himself off the ground, to leap into a fighting stance in a blur of movement, but found that his muscles refused to listen to his commands.

Naruto tried moving anything at all, his breathing becoming faster, but none of his limbs cooperated. Did that Uchiha asshole break his spine? No, quite obviously he could still feel his limbs, and the pain in his chest indicated that the injury originated there.

_This is it, _he thought, _I'm finished. He's going to rip Kyuubi from me and use it for Akatsuki's evil plans…everyone I know will die, and it'll be my fault._

His eyes—which thankfully still moved—turned towards Itachi as he crouched beside him, glaring up at him with ferocious anger because there was nothing else he could do. Yet beneath the glare, his blood was freezing in his veins as the faces of those he cared for flashed in his mind, along with images his mind conjured of how they would die; Sakura, Kakashi, Tsunade…Sas—everyone.

Itachi stared down at him, his eyes devoid of emotion.

Naruto glared back.

The pain in his chest was steadily increasing, spiking into new levels of agony with every beat of his heart, and Naruto knew that even if he could, he wouldn't have been able to move, save to dig his fingers into the ground below him, curl into a foetal position and grind his teeth until his jaw hurt. His breath was mutating into shallow, pained bursts, which didn't help the fire ripping through his chest—or his attempt to look indomitable in front of Itachi—at all.

Then Itachi's crimson eyes moved towards his chest, and Naruto found his own drawn in the same direction for the first time. His breath caught in shock.

Directly in the centre of his chest, so close to his heart that he had to wonder how it had missed, a knife's hilt protruded, along with about an inch of blade. Naruto could only guess from the size of the blade that it must've been seven or eight inches in length. It was made of a strange, black crystal which Naruto had never seen before.

The thick, cloying smell of his own hot blood drenching his jacket suddenly seemed to push itself into his awareness, and nausea swept though him. By now his face felt clammy and cold, and he knew it would be bone white if he were to look in a mirror. Kyuubi had thus far made no attempt to heal what damage it could, and on top of that, he wouldn't be able to get the knife out if he was unable to move. Naruto wondered how he wasn't already unconscious; from pain or blood loss.

"Naruto."

Naruto's eyes snapped back towards Itachi, his expression screaming _what have you done!_ He tried to open his mouth and scream those thoughts out loud, but his lips only parted pathetically and a dry puff of air escaped his throat. He tried to swallow and found he couldn't even do that.

_Is this how they do it? Tear it out of you and you can't even scream—not that I would give him the pleasure—or grit your teeth? I can understand why Gaara said it was the worst thing he had ever experienced._

"Naruto, I'm sorry."

That threw Naruto for a loop. What was he apologising for? If it was for the fact that he was about to kill Naruto and take Kyuubi, was he expecting Naruto to hug him and tell him everything was all right?

"I never planned for this to happen, and if there was any other way, I'd have taken it. It's the only…" Naruto started to zone out as Itachi continued talking. Was he actually supposed to believe that Itachi, the murderer of the entire Uchiha clan, save his brother, felt remorse over the killing of a stranger?

Itachi's voice was quiet. Naruto squished down thoughts of how it reminded him of another black haired boy, who was only marginally more pleasant than Itachi, but whom Naruto liked much more.

"…missed your heart and lungs, but it is still quite dangerous…" Naruto caught through his musing.

_Yes, I know, keep the jinchuriki alive at least until you can get what you want from it, then leave it to die. The extraction is fatal after all,_ Naruto thought. He was puzzled by Kyuubi's silence in his head thus far; he would've thought it'd be frantically telling him how to escape the situation. Enslavement with death at the end isn't fun, even if it rids you of your annoying vessel.

"…I can only…"

A surge of hate towards the Uchiha filled him as he droned on; he was drawing this out deliberately, savouring his victory and leaving Naruto enough time to envision a future with Kyuubi in the hands of Akatsuki ten thousand different ways.

"…Sasuke will wake up and realise what he's doing with his life."

What?

Naruto's entire train of thought was derailed when he heard the name. What did _he_ have to do with this? And what was this about waking up?

"The saying is true after all; you don't realise what you've got until it's gone, do you? He just needs a reminder. And from what I've gathered, you're the one he holds closest to his heart," Itachi finished saying, a bizarre approximation of a smile twitching on his lips. It scared Naruto more than a little.

Was this all some 'let's-destroy-even-more-people-Sasuke-knows-to-torture-him' thing, with the Kyuubi thrown in as a bonus? If so, it wouldn't work, Naruto thought with bitter amusement. Sasuke had long ago made it perfectly clear that he didn't give a damn about Naruto, Sakura or Kakashi anymore, and killing one of them would probably only warrant the passing thought that he was sorry he wasn't there to do it himself.

Naruto ruthlessly snuffed out the tiny voice in his head that reminded him of how he hadn't been killed at the Valley of the End after all, when Sas—Uchiha-teme had the chance to do it.

He hadn't given up on finding him and bringing him back, though; he'd made a promise. But it seemed he would never be able to keep it, now.

Itachi sighed, a gesture that somehow seemed uncharacteristic of him. "I just hope he makes the right choice. If he does and takes you back, likely someone will notice you're alive sooner or later. The alternative is just a risk that has to be taken."

Naruto's thoughts clouded with confusion. What on earth was the man talking about? He was going to live? And why would someone not notice Naruto was alive?

He actually sounded like he _cared _about the little brother he had tortured and left alone. Naruto couldn't make heads or tails of it. He ruefully reflected that maybe he should have been listening earlier.

Itachi gave Naruto a searching, penetrating stare. "If it doesn't work, I can only say that I'm sorry, but then it'll be better if everyone thinks the Kyuubi died along with its vessel. I'll come along and ensure it really does happen, then, so you won't have to be stuck like that for eternity."

Stuck like what?

Itachi's expression darkened. "And then I'll have to take care of my brother. With you apparently gone, any seed of doubt in his mind would be destroyed."

Naruto gave up on trying to understand the older man; now he was hinting that if 'something'—which Naruto assumed was some grand scheme of his—didn't work, he'd come along and kill Naruto anyway, and Sasuke as well.

If he didn't think it was impossible, he would've thought Itachi was staging some twisted sort of intervention.

Itachi's patterned robe rustled as the reached over Naruto for the hilt of the knife. Naruto held his breath, unsure what the man was planning, although he had earlier implied that he wasn't going to kill Naruto.

He gently closed his hand around the hilt, but Naruto still felt another spike of pain lance though him when it moved the tiniest bit. He wanted desperately to bite down on his lip, but he couldn't, and yet again frustration and panic welled up in him. For a ninja, a person who relied on not only mental, but also physical power to survive and defend against attack, as it would for anyone really, being incapacitated to the point of paralysis was horrific.

"I'm going to put some more chakra into the knife now," Itachi said. "I only gave it enough before to incapacitate you. Don't be frightened if it feels like you're not breathing or have no heartbeat—" Itachi chuckled humourlessly, "I should just say if it feels like you're dying, eh? You'll still be alive. I'm putting the Kyuubi under as well."

Naruto felt a hand squeeze his shoulder, and imagined what it would be like to break the arm it was attached to. '_Don't be frightened', Yeah, it's no biggie, I get my chest dissected by a psychopath on a daily basis. _

"It really was the only thing I could think of. I hope this can bring Sasuke back from the edge…it's the only thing, I think, that can." Itachi said.

Naruto didn't have time to ponder what he meant; the moment Itachi channelled his chakra into the blade Naruto felt something happen.

Or rather, several somethings.

A burning sensation seeped throughout his body from the knife. He started feeling even heavier—which hadn't seemed possible—and his blinking slowed down until it stopped. His eyes lost focus and remained fixed on the forest canopy, where his gaze had turned as he tried to ignore the pain. Naruto felt his breath starting to drag in and out slower and slower, and the racing of his heartbeat died with it.

His panic rose like a wave in his stomach, but he forced it down, repeating the mantra _I'llbeokayI'llbeokayI'llbeokay _in his head. Whether he believed it was another matter entirely.

When Itachi finally stopped, Naruto couldn't feel himself breathing at all, nor could he discern a heartbeat in his chest. His chakra—and the Kyuubi's—felt completely drained, unresponsive, and did not seem to be recovering at all.

It felt like that of a dead Shinobi would.

Naruto didn't even feel the Kyuubi anywhere. The burning feeling had faded, leaving behind the raw pain of the knife wound by itself.

Naruto could deduce that, to all appearances and purposes, he looked quite dead. It weirded him out more than anything he had ever experienced, the sensation of not breathing—not perceptibly anyway—and feeling no discomfort from it.

"There." Itachi leaned over him, and Naruto was able to more or less make out the concentrated expression on his face through his unfocused gaze. He felt two fingers on his carotid. They lingered there, searching for any signs of life. "I don't know if you can still hear me, Naruto, but I have to go now."

Anxiety washed through Naruto's veins. As much as he disliked the man, he was the only protection he had at the time, and now he was going to be left on his own, unable to move, and unsure whether the condition was indefinite; Itachi had said something about being 'stuck like that'.

He removed his fingers from Naruto's neck. "Don't worry about enemies; the only people coming by here will be Sasuke, in a few hours' time. I took care of it."

Wait, _what_?

Sasuke was coming by?

Naruto felt like there would be steam—no, lava—coming out of his ears if his anger had a physical manifestation. And now he was even unable to glare the source of his ire to death, with his eyes fixed and staring at a point above the man's shoulder.

Sasuke, the legendary arrogant, self centred teme, was going to come close to the area of forest where Naruto laid helpless, beaten…_weak_, as he would say.

Naruto wished the earth would swallow him whole. He should probably have expected that Sasuke would become involved sometime, if this was about him, but not like _this_.

But maybe, just maybe, the teme would be able to help him out of this situation.

Itachi's Akatsuki cloak rustled again as he shifted downwards. "I have to take it out. If this gets into the wrong hands, it could be very dangerous," he said, his hand once again closing around the hilt of the crystal knife. "I hope you're not awake, but if so, I apologise."

He pulled.

Naruto tried to flinch away, his instincts screaming at him to move, but his body didn't even twitch. The knife slid out with a wet, solid sound, and Naruto's thoughts were obliterated by a pure, concentrated surge of pain that spread from the wound like the shockwave of a bomb and made his ears ring.

He didn't even notice the hand passing over his face until he felt fingers brushing his eyelids closed, pulling a black curtain over his vision.

_No nonono _no_! _Panic welled up in Naruto at having his sight taken away.

"Goodbye, Naruto Uzumaki. I sincerely hope this isn't the last thing Sasuke needs to break his ties with humanity, but the opposite instead. May we meet again."

_No thanks weasel. If I could only get my hands around your neck…_

Naruto felt the wind from Itachi's billowing cloak on his face, and then the sound of rapidly fading footsteps reached his ears.

He suddenly felt more alone than he ever had in his life.

He almost hoped for the red eyed weasel to grace him with his noxious presence again.

As he fumed, Naruto became aware of a wet feeling on his chest, and a trickle of salty, metallic tasting liquid from the corner of his mouth. He must've started bleeding more when Itachi removed the knife, and he could only hope he wouldn't bleed to death. Ha, if he could even be considered alive.

Unable to do anything, Naruto lay where he was, thinking of all the colourful ways he could describe Itachi and resolutely trying to _not _go insane because of the utterly helpless condition he was stuck in.

The stone digging into his shoulder was starting to feel more like a kunai after the sun moved halfway across the sky, from what he could gather out of the shifting shadows on his eyelids and the heat on his body; and his chest throbbed.

His fingers and toes became cold.

The heat loss slowly spread inward, across his arms and legs, and finally settled in his torso. His body didn't shiver for even one second, though it felt like a block of ice. The fact that the dappled morning sunlight which had warmed the earth was now behind a thick tree didn't help.

Where was Sasuke?

_Something _scuttled over an exposed bit of leg between his pants and his sandals; where his pants had lifted when he fell. Naruto had a panic filled moment where he fervently hoped it wasn't anything that could sting or bite. Thankfully nothing bit or stung him, and it crawled off again, rustling minutely under the leaves. After a while its sounds completely faded, but Naruto's sharp hearing still picked up the small noises of animals foraging around. Luckily none of them approached him.

Having had enough time to contemplate everything Itachi had said—everything he caught, in any case—and trying to distract himself from the mental images of what someone unfriendly happening upon him would do, he had come to the conclusion that Itachi wasn't who everybody thought he was. He seemed to think that what he had done to Naruto would somehow send Sasuke on a different path.

What path that was Naruto didn't know.

The only thing Naruto could think of was that it would remove the last person truly trying to redeem him. But that didn't explain what he'd said about Sasuke not realising what he had till it was gone…or Itachi not wanting him to 'break his ties with humanity'.

This could all be some sick game of Itachi's too, to torture Naruto, or his brother.

His thoughts kept turning in that same cycle, possibilities for what Itachi had meant popping up in his mind, but he refused to acknowledge them. The same way he refused to feed the tiny ember of hope that still glowed deep down inside him for the friend he considered a brother, or to acknowledge the spark of joy he felt at the prospect of seeing him again. The fear of how much he had changed since the last time Naruto had seen him far outweighed it.

Naruto was starting to feel like jumping out of his skin, only naturally he couldn't. Thinking about Itachi only occupied him for a while before all the possible scenarios were considered dozens of times. Reciting all his ninjustsu techniques and their respective processes in his head only kept him busy until the sun was starting to head west. He guessed that it was two, maybe three in the afternoon, and Itachi had left him there early; no later than ten in the morning.

Sasuke wasn't coming.

He wanted to scratch his cheek, where a fly had alighted and made it itch maddeningly before buzzing off again. Naruto tried to relax his mind, in hopes that he could fall asleep, but lying helpless in foreign woods were not conducive to sleeping; he found himself pricking his ears mentally very time he heard a new sound, panic sparking briefly within him until the noise was identified as an animal, or some other innocuous thing. Nor was he every comfortable; cold, in pain, with sharp things jabbing into his back and the ooze of blood turning sticky on his chest.

Naruto wondered if he _could _sleep, seeing as whatever the knife had done prevented him from falling unconscious even with a big hole in his chest.

The sun started peeking out from behind the tree which had thrown him in shade, washing the inside of his eyelids in scarlet light.

He was pondering the horrors of not being able to sleep when his fox-like hearing picked up a new sound.

It was a muffled thudding sound, solidifying into the sound of someone purposefully walking as it came closer. The sounds came from somewhere to his right; west.

If Naruto's heart was beating normally, it would be thudding heavily in his ears, to the rhythm of those footsteps.

Unlike Itachi, this person was being cautious, but not overly so; they weren't crunching over leaves and twigs, but neither were they walking so lightly that the settling of their weight with each step did not register any sound. As if they did not expect to encounter anyone but were being careful out of habit.

Naruto didn't know how, but he recognised that particular tread.

Sasuke-teme was walking in his general direction.

A swirl of mixed emotions so strong they made his head spin assailed him.

First he felt a surge of relief so intense he would have gotten teary eyes if he could. Finally, someone who hadn't put him in this condition in the first place was coming. He could only hope Sasuke would deign to help him.

Yet at the same time, he wanted to crawl into a hole somewhere, wished for the wind to cover him in a pile of leaves, a tree to fall on him; anything to prevent Sasuke from seeing him like this.

No matter how much he wanted him back, he didn't need the indignity of facing him this way. He imagined Sasuke's face twisted into a sneer, his disgusted tone as he mused on how weak Naruto was to be defeated in the backwoods—because Sasuke wouldn't know he'd been fighting _Itachi_, an S-class missing nin, and would immediately assume it was some stupid mistake that caused Naruto's injury.

But of course, if there was the possibility of humiliation, Naruto was never spared.

The chronically grumpy boy's pace faltered and slowed, no doubt as his path intersected the trail of broken, bruised and scorched trees Itachi and Naruto had left in their wake. The damage was a few hours old by now, and the Uchiha-teme's steps grew more cautious as he followed it, eventually becoming so quiet that Naruto had to strain to pick it up. Naruto could guess that he wouldn't stick to the trail, rather opting to keep his distance from it in case someone was still there and saw him walking in the cleared space left by the clash.

The footsteps came closer. Fifty yards…

Twenty five…

Ten…

It was almost inaudible, but Naruto still heard the sharp, surprised intake of breath after Sasuke first glimpsed him.

* * *

Sasuke Uchiha had sometimes wondered, with the feeling of a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar (only these cookies contained glass filings and arsenic), what his next meeting with Naruto would be like.

Of course, the dobe would probably come along with his nauseating arguments about friendship, love and teamwork, and his sickening martyr complex.

The dobe never did realise that everyone wasn't the same as him; that those arguments would never work on Sasuke. Sasuke, whose brother haunted his nightmares every night, until he could find peace in the knowledge that the man was dead. In a fight like this, there was no room for tender feelings or friendship, just raw power and hate, and power was one thing he couldn't get from Konoha or its people.

Sasuke had always known that, but for a while, Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi, in their own ways, had distracted him from his mission. Plans for the future began to form in his mind, plans for ANBU membership and staying with his team, like a family. Kakashi would be there to advise him and teach him techniques, the dobe would advance with him—though a little slower, as befitted a dobe, of course, and even the pink haired fangirl would eventually accept that he wasn't secretly in love with her. The vengeance he had sworn became a vague afterthought, something he'd get around to doing after everything else, maybe. He'd enjoyed the sensation of feeling anything other than desolation and the overpowering need for vengeance when he'd been in the company of the hyperactive blonde.

Then, with a horrified surge of guilt, he'd realised what was going on. Sasuke had _forgotten_. Forgotten the way Itachi had killed his mother and father, throwing their love back in their faces as he took their lives, and made Sasuke relive it for hours on end. He'd forgotten how Itachi had dishonoured his entire clan in a single night and abandoned him; leaving him the task of redeeming it. Sasuke's grasp on his reasons for revenge had been slipping, the reasons for his planned path of life looking more feeble by the day. And the straw that broke the camel's back was the moment he'd realised that, despite all his effort, the dobe, the _loser _of the class, was surpassing him in technique and power.

What would his parents say if they saw how he was throwing the memory of their demise by the wayside?

The dobe had poisoned him with his happiness. It had seeped into him so silently, taking root despite all his efforts to push it away, clinging to his heart and digging in its claws, until only the realisation that he wasn't moving towards his goal snapped him out of it.

Knowing he had to gain more power, and stay as far away from that village and the debilitating feelings planted in him by his team—for how could he beat Itachi if even the village idiot was progressing faster than him?—he'd started thinking of looking elsewhere for power.

Orochimaru had only been the logical conclusion.

So, whenever he found himself wondering what the dobe was doing, and if he felt a smirk threaten to twitch on his lips when something reminded him of one of the myriad of stupid things the dobe always did, he only had to think of Itachi to make it go away. It was hard, and the thoughts were becoming more stubborn, but Itachi's burning eyes always won out.

But for all his Not-Thinking-About-The-Dobe moments, he'd still sometimes caught himself wondering what he'd have to do to get the dobe off his back next time…If he would have to shove a Chidori right through his heart, and if that would finally put an end to his thoughts of home and what it would be like to be back there, away from Orochimaru's suffocating hold.

Sasuke had never imagined that the next time he met Naruto would involve no saccharine comments or pleas at all.

He came upon the winding, serpentine trail of decimated trees as he was heading to one of the hideouts Orochimaru maintained for his travelling followers, spotted over many countries in isolated areas.

Immediately, he knew that this had been no small fight; the destroyed trees alone indicated that blows strong enough to kill lesser enemies had been exchanged. The air was laden with the crackling tension of used chakra, but it was so faded that it was no longer recognisable, save for the fact that a lot of it had been expended. The fight must've been only a few hours old for there to still be traces of chakra in the atmosphere.

A burnt green smell invaded his nose, clinging to the back of his throat.

Sasuke followed the trail cautiously, lest anyone was still there. Mild curiosity stirred within him. While he was supposed to rest before going on, he had nothing to do, and even though slightly tired, he knew if he slept he'd wake up in a cold sweat after only a while, the after image of Itachi's Mangekyou Sharingan flashing behind his eyelids every time he blinked. That or he'd dream about the dobe again…seeing his expression at the Valley—

In any case, the culprits might be hostile, and they could still be nearby, so Sasuke was obligated to do some reconnaissance for safety's sake.

The trail grew wider until it petered out into a wide, circular, cleared area, the earth jagged and torn, where the fight had obviously reached its climax. No bodies lay in sight, and Sasuke wondered if the winning party had taken away or disposed of the loser's.

Spending a minute to scan the area for people, he concluded that anyone who walked away from the fight was long gone. So Sasuke stepped into the clearing.

Footprints were scattered here and there, but they intersected each other, or were torn by rents in the ground. The only thing Sasuke could deduce was that a relatively small person had been fighting against a large one. A female Shinobi, perhaps?

He paced the perimeter of the clearing, looking for more signs. It wasn't until he reached the other side clearing that he found anything of interest.

A single, fat drop of blood lay on the ground, its lengthened form indicating that whatever had bled had been moving very fast as it did. Sasuke immediately began walking in the direction the feathered edge of the droplet pointed, out of the clearing.

He saw no signs of a body having been removed from the unblemished forest floor, and after walking no small distance, he came to the conclusion that the bleeding party had been thrown, and thrown far, with considerable force.

Sasuke was completely unprepared for the icy dread that splashed through his stomach when something orange between the trees caught his eye.

_No, surely not, being ridiculous, baka, this far out—_

Sasuke's gaze zeroed in on the blotch of colour. He felt the blood drain from his face and his breath die in his throat when he recognised it as clothes. Orange and black clothes, marred by a large red stain in the centre of the jacket, adorning a supine Uzumaki Naruto.

Shafts of sunlight lit his hair in a golden shade, strands falling over his bare forehead. The hitai-ate he always wore lay a few yards away, a new dent in its worn surface.

His eyes were closed, and if it weren't for the unnatural bone white shade of his skin and the crimson all over his chest Sasuke would've thought he was sleeping. The small trickle of blood from his mouth contrasted with his pale skin and drew his eyes like a magnet.

He wasn't aware of moving, but suddenly he was kneeling by his side, shaking his shoulder with a shell shocked "Uzumaki?" falling from stiff lips, and the only thing he could think was how utterly _wrong _it was for someone who was so constantly energetic, alive and active, to be so very still.

It was only when he reached for his hand to measure his pulse that he realised Naruto's wrist felt as cold as the ground beneath it.

* * *

_To be continued._

Please review! Constructive criticism welcome :)


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** I present the second part. I hope it is as enjoyable as the first! It focuses more on what's happening in the immediate present and less on expansion on character's motivations than the previous part, though it is a little shorter. Again, I'm hoping that I managed to convey the characters' reactions IC, but some OOCness may be present. The POV switches to Naruto's from here on. As before, the next part will be out soon.

Thank you very much for all the reviews, favourites and alerts, I really appreciate it! Thanks also to anyone who took time to read my story :)

- The same important points as stated in the previous part apply.

**Warnings:** Some blood and gore. Cheesiness increases exponentially.

**Disclaimer:** Naruto and its characters is the property of Masashi Kishimoto. I'm only borrowing and torturing them a little.

* * *

_**Itachi's Dubious Plan**_

_**Part 2**_

_**By PandoraVII**_

Everything was silent, and Naruto waited, wondering, fearing what would happen next.

The footsteps suddenly started up again, no effort being made to hide as Sasuke quickly crossed the space between him and Naruto. A shadow fell over Naruto's eyelids where the sun had been warming them.

Sand and leaves crunched under Sasuke's sandals as he crouched, and Naruto could almost feel the heat of Sasuke's body as he leaned over him in a flurry of movement. Naruto recognised the familiar woody pine scent of what he assumed was Sasuke's soap close by.

Choppy breaths gusted over his face.

"…Uzumaki?" Sasuke gave Naruto's shoulder a small shake. His voice had gotten deeper since they last met, but Naruto still recognised it as pure Sasuke. It was strained with some unidentifiable emotion, the complete opposite of the flat tone it had taken the last time they'd met.

Obviously Naruto couldn't say anything. He was rather surprised that the Uchiha hadn't just said 'Hn' and walked off again. That would've seemed more likely.

Clothes rustled and Sasuke's shoes creaked as he leaned back. A warm hand closed around his wrist and started to lift it before Sasuke suddenly dropped it like it had burned him, his breath catching.

Naruto was startled when Sasuke's hand suddenly moved over his neck, settling on his pulse and pressing down so hard that Naruto knew he'd get a bruise. It was so much warmer than his current body heat, which probably equalled the ambient temperature, as he was—

Oh.

Oh, no.

Realisation hit him like one of Sakura's punches.

Sasuke didn't have a clue that Naruto was alive. Naruto had to make him realise it somehow, but it was kinda hard when he couldn't _do _anything to indicate it.

"Dobe?" Another hand cupped his chin and tilted his head slightly to the side, then moved to cradle his cheek, while the first kept shifting over his neck before pressing down again, still searching for a pulse. It was only then that Naruto realised the fingers moving on his cold skin were trembling.

Naruto was stunned speechless (or thoughtless, anyway). Floored. Totally astonished. And angry.

All this time, he'd been trying to get the stupid, proud, arrogant Uchiha-teme back to Konoha, and losing hope. Every word Sasuke had said to him when he met him before had broken down the confidence that the boy still cared for anyone, let alone him and the rest of the team, until it was virtually nonexistent, morphed into a tiny, dying spark of hope in his heart.

If only Sasuke wasn't convinced that, for some reason, he had to run to the nearest evil mastermind to learn powerful techniques, and more importantly, that it was a weakness to care about anyone. Then he wouldn't have denied it in the first place, and Naruto and Sakura would've helped him to get strong.

But now there they were, both on different sides of the fence, and _now _Sasuke had to finally realise that you couldn't just switch feelings off like a light. You could deny they were there, but they still were.

He could finally understand what Itachi had been trying to show Sasuke, but he thought it was a cruel way to do it.

And he could see painfully well how easily it could go in a totally wrong direction.

Sasuke's thumb moved over his cheek, and paused as it caught on the small, dried out trickle of blood that ran from the corner of Naruto's mouth to the back of his neck, disappearing into his hair, while his other hand released Naruto's neck, moving upwards under Naruto's head, fingers threading through his hair and tightening.

"What is this?" Sasuke's voice was almost a whisper; it sounded strained, "What kind of a sick joke is this, Uzumaki? Huh?" The last was punctuated by a small tug on Naruto's hair.

_My thoughts exactly when Itachi did it, teme._

With a sharp gasp, Sasuke released Naruto's head, causing it to thud heavily, but painlessly, on the ground. Then there was a frantic scrambling noise, and the next thing Naruto heard laboured breathing coming from the direction of the tree that had been casting shadows over him about two yards away.

Alarmed, Naruto wished he could open his eyes and see what was happening, but it only took him a moment to connect the harsh, nasal breathing to all the times he'd been fighting back tears in his life. It was unreal, but not impossible to imagine Sasuke sitting, back against the tree, lips pressed together with the corners struggling to turn downwards and tears flowing without permission down his face.

The very fact that he was doing it for Naruto was even more unreal.

Naruto's heart clenched. He wished he could jump up and shout 'got you!' even if it meant Sasuke would never talk to him again, just to stop him from crying.

The rushing sound of Sasuke's movement started up again, and Naruto was abruptly engulfed in pain as hands moved him. His wound, which had merely been throbbing deeply after being left undisturbed, felt like it was being torn open and twisted within him. When the pain screaming through him reduced to a raw beat his senses returned him to the forest, where he was feeling suddenly warm.

The prickly forest floor and the stone digging into his shoulder were gone, and instead something comfortable supported his weight. Naruto's brain put this together with the warmth his body was soaking up, the lean, muscled arms constricted around him, and his more or less reclined sitting position, to conclude that Sasuke was holding him in his lap.

Naruto's thoughts consisted of only '_Sasuke_', _'lap_',_ 'cuddling_', and_ 'urgh'_, along with the overwhelming urge to cover his face with his hands.

He didn't think a situation more embarrassing could exist, and yet he wouldn't exchange the warmth of the embrace—and the knowledge that the friend he thought hated him was the one giving it—for all the dignity he'd ever lost from embarrassing situations.

His cold cheek absorbed the heat of Sasuke's shoulder, against which it lay, through thin material. Naruto was once again startled at just how hot the temperature of Sasuke's body felt now that he was so cold.

Hot tears dripped slowly onto Naruto's neck and shoulder from Sasuke's chin, and yet his body wasn't jostled by a single sob. Every now and then he would feel Sasuke drawing in a deep breath and holding it tightly, before slowly releasing it. The tears just kept steadily dripping, causing Naruto's jacket to start feeling wet at the hem. Sasuke made no attempt to wipe his face.

The silence and lack of movement bothered Naruto more than the mere fact that Sasuke was crying had. After who knows how long, crickets and frogs started up their nightly sounds.

Sasuke still hadn't moved.

Naruto was badly startled when he finally did. He felt Sasuke's one arm release him and his fingers started to drift over his cheeks, lightly ghosting over the scars marring his face, before carding through his hair, picking up a steady, gentle rhythm and keeping to it for a long time. A wave of guilt consumed Naruto; even though he knew he wasn't responsible for the situation, his soul cringed at the effect it had on Sasuke. When it slowed and stopped, Sasuke merely kept his large, warm palm in Naruto's hair, fingers now and then moving before stopping again, pressing the side of Naruto's face into the crook of his neck.

The situation lasted until birdsong started to replace the night sounds. Warmth from a sun peeking over the horizon, weaker than the furnace Sasuke's body felt like, touched his where it wasn't in contact with Sasuke's.

The tears had finally stopped, but the sadness and despair emanating from Sasuke in waves didn't diminish.

If only he could get Sasuke to look deeper than his unresponsiveness and intangible pulse. Wouldn't he maybe be able to see something was still alive and kicking within Naruto if he took a look with the Sharingan? But Naruto had no way of getting him to do it, and Sasuke seemed too dazed to even think of looking at his wound.

Still Sasuke did nothing. His unresponsiveness was starting to make trails of apprehension trickle into Naruto's gut.

The sun became stronger, again making Naruto's eyelids appear red from the inside. A slightly chilly breeze ruffled his hair, and Sasuke's bangs tickled his forehead.

Alarm shot through him when he heard the sound of something crashing though the forest from the same direction Sasuke had come, obviously pursuing something without restraint or fear of discovery.

And Sasuke didn't even tense, or turn his head to see what it was.

_Do something, teme! What if it's someone trying to kill you? You can't just _sit _there!_

Then he heard it.

"Sasuke?" The tone of voice was uncharacteristically surprised, but still recognisable.

_Kakashi? What are you—did Baa-Chan send you after me?_ Tsunade must have thought he'd been gone too long.

Sasuke didn't reply. Kakashi's pace quickened, the man no doubt a little alarmed at his estranged student's unresponsiveness, even though he was branded a traitor. Kakashi must've been following the trail of broken trees and seen only Sasuke's back, which was turned towards it, where he sat on the ground.

"Naruto…" Suddenly Kakashi was speaking from in front of them, the location of his voice and the whisper of cloth indicating he had crouched down.

A tense silence descended on the area, similar to the pause after Sasuke had first seen him, but steadily turning more ominous. Naruto once again cursed Itachi for closing his eyes.

"What happened here, Sasuke?" Kakashi asked, voice far too serious for a person normally so carefree. Naruto could virtually feel the ninja's quiet, deadly ire rising, covering over the shock barely audible in his voice.

It was all too obvious what Kakashi would think when he found Sasuke with a 'dead' Naruto. He suddenly felt afraid for Sasuke.

Sasuke didn't make a sound, didn't move, or even indicate he'd heard Kakashi as far as Naruto could tell.

"What did you do?" Kakashi's voice was flat, the cold voice of a trained killer taking over as he shut his emotions down. Killing intent crept through the atmosphere. "Let me see."

Abruptly Naruto's support disappeared from under him as Kakashi harshly grabbed him by the upper arm and tried to pull him out of Sasuke's hold, only for Sasuke to yank him back. Something in his chest _pulled_, turning his thoughts into a litany of nonsensical begging and pleading for the pain to stop.

"_No!_" Sasuke snarled, and Naruto wanted to gag from the intensity of the killing intent that emanated from the unbalanced Uchiha. Naruto could feel the teen's breath hitching, and he wondered if he was actually fighting tears.

Kakashi did not release his hold, but he stopped moving. The deadly aura around him wavered and died. If Kakashi had been expecting Sasuke to do something, what had just occurred was definitely not on the list. A small corner of Naruto's brain registered the anomaly of the Copy Ninja being surprised more than once in one day. But the surprise only lasted a moment before Kakashi's intelligent mind connected the dots.

"You didn't do this, did you?" Kakashi asked. The killing intent was gone; his voice now contained only an extreme tiredness.

Naruto's thoughts clouded with relief.

Sasuke kept his silence, but it must have been enough of an answer, because Kakashi's grip on Naruto's arm tightened again.

"I need to see him, Sasuke, whether you want me to or not," He tugged Naruto again, much more gently, but this time Sasuke's arms fell from him, as if all life had been drained from them.

Kakashi caught him, cradling the back of Naruto's head with a gloved hand as he lowered him carefully back to the cold ground. Even so, Naruto's body was screaming with pain by the time the movement stopped. He was tiring of being handled like a doll, even though he knew there was no alternative.

The man exhaled heavily, and Naruto felt his fingers barely brushing the blood crusted cloth around the wound.

Naruto could only think _please, _please _see something, Kakashi! _He knew the man wasn't stupid. Neither was he as totally messed up as Sasuke was, even though his demeanour was grim and still blank from shock; hopefully he'd notice that the wound missed Naruto's heart.

Naruto's thoughts froze with hope when he felt a light brush of chakra through his system, intensifying as Kakashi did a diagnostic scan, one of the basic medical skills most Jounins knew.

"I think Akatsuki got him. This knife wound was dangerous, but not fatal…they must've extracted the Kyuubi. I need to check…to make sure," Kakashi murmured, voice weary. Sasuke's breathing stopped, before continuing, so shallow it was barely audible.

Naruto's heart clenched. _C'mon, Kakashi, there must be something to indicate—_

Naruto felt deft fingers pluck at the collar of his jacket, starting to pull the zipper down. When the jacket caught where the dried blood had stuck it to his chest, Kakashi peeled it off. It felt like a particularly sticky band aid coming off, only this band aid was covering a knife wound, and Naruto's world once again shrunk away as raw pain consumed him.

When he came back to himself, Kakashi was cutting the remains of the torn black tank top he'd been wearing underneath his jacket down the middle with a kunai. Naruto mentally squirmed at being so exposed, but hope that they would finally find out he was _alive _overruled it. Kakashi could put him in the village proper in only his boxers if it meant he would see something.

Naruto knew what the pair would see: A deep, gaping stab wound in the centre of his chest. The jagged scar from Sasuke's Chidori decorating his shoulder. And hopefully, the seal would be staining his skin in inky black lines from the touch of chakra.

_Please please please—_

Kakashi's single intake of breath was enough of an answer. "Impossible…he—he's still alive. Sasuke—Sasuke! Are you listening?"

A long pause ensued, before Sasuke spoke. His voice was low and sounded so lifeless, like simply speaking had turned into an effort, that Naruto felt dread knotting his stomach. "How can he be alive? I checked his pulse. Look at him."

"I know, Sasuke. He doesn't seem to have a pulse, but I'm sure if I look well enough I can find one. If he does, it's almost imperceptible and very slow, and that's why you didn't feel it. His body hasn't started stiffening at all; when it should have been doing so already if you take into account how old the marks from the fight are. It should have continued to do so for at least a few hours. The stiffness wouldn't just fade away either…it takes days to become slack again. While a living person can be cold and pale, their bodies don't stiffen." Kakashi would know after all, he'd been around death far longer than either of the teens.

"And then there's the fact that, while this wound is very dangerous, it missed both his heart and his lungs, and he lost a fair amount of blood, but not enough to kill him. I suspect the slow pulse had something to do with it."

Kakashi sighed. "Finally, the seal is supposed to disappear when the Kyuubi is extracted, and since that's the only other thing that could be a cause of death, I highly doubt he's dead. Now, I need you to get yourself together and use your Sharingan to try and see what's going on. I would try mine, but I used almost all of my chakra on a mission just before I came. It's up to you, Sasuke."

Naruto's thoughts were a stream of thankyous.

Sasuke released a shaky breath. "If you're lying to me, Kakashi…" he still sounded off, but some of the life had returned to his voice, as if he was hoping, but trying to curb himself from hoping too much. But the threat in his voice was clear as well.

"What reason would I have to lie, Sasuke?" Kakashi said. His tone sounded exasperated, but more urgent than anything.

"What do I do?" Sasuke's voice had turned deadly serious.

Kakashi's hand rested on Naruto's forehead as a rustle announced Sasuke's movement toward Naruto. "You'll need to look into his eyes with the Sharingan activated. Hopefully you'll be able to find something out."

Then the Jounin's warm fingers pressed into his eyelids and pushed them open, giving Naruto his sight back for the first time since the whole thing started, and bumping Kakashi up even higher on Naruto's list of people he liked.

The midmorning sun cast dappled shadows through the trees. From what Naruto could see through his unfocused eyes, there was a scattering of light clouds in the sky. In his peripheral vision, the dark and green blur that was Kakashi loomed. His shock of silver hair and the hitai-ate covering his Sharingan eye glinted even in the dappled sunlight.

But it was the dark-haired teen leaning over him that stole his attention.

The black bangs that framed his face were a little longer than they had been, and the face before him was more angular. His skin was still as pale as always, and he was wearing some kind of thin white shirt that hung open down the front. His cursed seal peeked out from underneath the collar.

From what Naruto could see through his imperfect vision, Sasuke's onyx eyes looked wider than usual. There was a deadness in them Naruto wished he could erase; as if he'd been staring into an abyss no one should ever see, and was still lost in it. Bare traces of hope and desperation were sparking to life in the emptiness. His eyelids looked raw, and there were dark circles under them.

The Uchiha seemed to hesitate when his black eyes finally fell on Naruto's, after travelling everywhere on his face but there. They searched his for a few long seconds. Naruto knew they looked dead and unfocused, but he had somehow still hoped that maybe there would be _something_ to show he was alive. He swore mentally when Sasuke's mouth turned down into a grimace and he pressed his lips together, breathing deeply through his nose. Then Naruto was treated to a view of the underside of his chin as he looked at Kakashi.

"Are you sure? He looks so…"

_Dead? Yeah, we all think so, teme, now just get that Sharingan going and hopefully you'll see I'm not._

"I'm sure, Sasuke."

Those coal black eyes turned back to his, and Naruto began feeling dizzy as his vision pulled into focus on Sasuke's eyes, into which red was seeping like a bloodstain. The tomoe became more defined and started lazily circling about his irises. Naruto felt a strange sensation all over his body, as if his spirit was being sucked out. Darkness rose in the corners of his vision as the Sharingan filled it, and the last thing he saw before it consumed him was the tomoe of Sasuke's Sharingan starting to spin so fast they blurred.

When the darkness receded, Naruto found himself on the cold, mouldy floor before the cell where he always met Kyuubi. A cold, wet concrete smell reached his nose, and water dripped somewhere slowly, the rhythm maddening.

His limbs felt like they weighed tons, and his brain felt so tired that he almost couldn't string a coherent thought together. It was as if the consciousness forced upon him by the strange technique did not apply in his subconscious, and his injuries were all catching up to him. The wound's pain pulsed in his chest. Chakra draining shackles pinned his arms and legs to the floor, the metal icy against his skin. Naruto realised that these were also what was preventing him from sensing his chakra or the Kyuubi's; or at least, how it manifested in his subconscious.

A groan echoed from somewhere ahead of him. Then there was shuffling.

"Naruto?" he heard Sasuke say from the same location. He rolled his head to the right with a titanic effort, only to see the bars of the Kyuubi's cage, looking the way they always did. Beyond the bars, the huge form of Kyuubi lay on its side, shackled to the floor just like Naruto, and apparently unconscious. Its red eyes were open and staring, and even though vacant they lent it a sense of latent menace, as if Kyuubi would fix its prey with a malevolent—and very much alert—gaze as soon as its back was turned.

Then his vision was obscured by a black set of sandals as Sasuke crouched beside him. A warm hand tilted his head back up. He found himself blinking owlishly, looking into red eyes wide with shock and, oddly enough, fear; though the fear was obviously not _of _Naruto. But Naruto was actually _looking, _his eyes moving and alive,not staring, dead looking and unfocused. And Sasuke saw that.

At first he seemed unable to say anything, merely squeezing Naruto's hand in an iron grip as his breath came out in a shaky exhale.

"Dobe…you're alive," Sasuke breathed, and it was probably the most relieved Naruto had ever heard the boy sound in his life. Then Sasuke's expression flooded with concern again as his eyes turned to the shackles and the wound on Naruto's chest. "These are chakra restraining chains, aren't they, dobe?" His craned his head over his shoulder. "Same on the Kyuubi, right?"

Naruto didn't answer. He was tired and he wanted nothing more than to tell Sasuke how glad he was to see him, but his eyelids were already falling shut and refused to open, as much as he tried. Speaking was impossible.

Sasuke seemed to realise this, and he grabbed Naruto's face firmly in his hands. "I'll get you out of this, okay, dobe? We'll get back ho—" Sasuke's words were cut off as the darkness once again rushed over Naruto's vision.

Naruto didn't expect to wake up again, and was looking forward to enjoying his rest when his sight returned again and he groaned inwardly. The first thing he saw was the red Sharingan in Sasuke's eyes fading to black. Immediately his eyes lost their former sharp focus, and he saw the slightly blurred form of Sasuke disappear to the side. Leaves crunched under the boy's weight. He must've needed to sit down after using his Sharingan to enter Naruto's mind.

Directly after the movement, Sasuke again pulled Naruto to his chest, his hold much gentler yet still firm, unwilling to let go. Naruto couldn't see much; his eyes were staring straight at Sasuke's chest, against which his face lay, warming quite nicely.

"What is it? What happened, Sasuke?" Kakashi's voice came from beside Naruto, a touch of uneasiness tingeing it. He probably feared that Sasuke saw something bad and reverted to his nearly catatonic state from earlier.

"They're both alive, Kyuubi is unconscious." Sasuke's chest vibrated in Naruto's ear when he talked.

"Naruto was awake when I got in, but he didn't seem coherent and passed out before I left him." Sasuke's voice was much steadier, but still contained a hollow note, "It's strange…their chakra is being held back, so he can't heal…I don't have a clue what caused the state he's in now. I can maybe activate my Sharingan again and break through the barrier; I think whatever's causing this state is connected to that," he shifted slightly as if to place Naruto back on the forest floor, but Kakashi interrupted.

"Wait. Think about it; if you do that here, and something goes wrong, say, if the Kyuubi's chakra isn't released with Naruto's, there's no way he's going to heal…I doubt he would've been up and running even if the Kyuubi was fully functional. As bad as it sounds, this…condition is actually the best thing to keep him stable until he gets medical attention." There was a rustle of paper as Kakashi opened something that sounded like a scroll, and a small pulse of chakra. The something thudded and clinked. Naruto concluded that something had been taken from a storage scroll.

Kakashi blew out a breath. "We're caught between a rock and a hard place, really. I'm afraid the condition might be worsening, especially since you said he passed out. There's no way to tell unless we sit for hours measuring his vitals and assessing whether they're declining, they're just _that _slow. If we knew they were, your plan would've worked, but the risk of him actually dying without medical backup is too high. We'll have to hope it's not worsening and get him to help fast enough that if it is, it doesn't kill him." The object from the scroll was dragged closer to Kakashi, and the noise of a zipper opening echoed through the silence.

"What are you—" Sasuke started, but Kakashi was already explaining.

"The wound needs to be dressed, we don't want anything contaminating it, even if it's not bleeding, there's an infection risk if he gets fixed and it's been open all that time. Actually, would you mind doing it, Sasuke? I need to take a look around, see if I can find out anything about who did this. Thanks!" There was a rush of movement and a small poof as Kakashi got up and disappeared without waiting for a reply.

"Baka…" Sasuke muttered under his breath, but surprisingly he complied. Naruto would've gasped if he could when the sensation of cold, saline solution sluicing over the wound startled him and sent a shock of pain through his chest. Sasuke then took a clean cloth, also wet, dabbing at Naruto's chest until all the crusted blood was off and flushing it with saline again. It hurt when the cloth brushed over the wound even with the slightest pressure, but he knew Sasuke wasn't doing it on purpose.

Lastly, he gently wiped Naruto's face, especially concentrating on the dried out trickle of blood from his mouth. Naruto could only assume it was with a different cloth than the one used on his chest, as no smell of blood was discernible, and the cloth used on his chest would be dirty beyond repair. Unfortunately he closed Naruto's eyes again as well.

He was constantly wondering whether he was in a dream; whether the cold, indifferent boy he'd known would be back when he woke up. But he was still there, still doing everything in his stoic 'I don't want to look like I care' way.

Sasuke liberally covered the wound with antiseptic cream, before sticking on a dressing with medical tape. There wasn't much else he could do, Naruto knew, as there was no fresh water nearby, and neither was it provided in the medical packs.

Naruto vaguely registered Kakashi returning after a while. When Sasuke was finished, he put the medical pack back in its scroll before breaking the silence.

His tone was careful. "He has to be taken back to Konoha. My chakra is too drained to maintain the speed you can, and he needs to get there as soon as possible…"

A rushing sensation made Naruto's stomach plummet before he realised Sasuke had stood up, a hand hooked beneath his knees and his other arm bracing his shoulders. His head was resting in the crook of Sasuke's neck, and he felt the last dregs of his dignity die a squirming death as the fact that he was being carried like a damsel in distress dawned on him.

"You had better send one of your mutts to tell the Hokage not to kill me on sight." Was all Sasuke said, but it made Naruto's hope soar and stomach twist.

_Sasuke's coming back he's coming home Sakura's going to be so happy oh coming back coming back home but will he stay he has to stay he can't go—_

"Of course. Now get going." Even Kakashi couldn't quite act as if he'd been confident Sasuke would agree.

Sasuke was off running before he finished his sentence.

—_he's coming back…_

A small shiver of distress worked its way into Naruto's happy thoughts.

_But will he stay?_

* * *

_To be continued._

As always, please review, and constructive criticism is welcome :)


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Well, the conclusion of Itachi's Dubious Plan is here. I hope it was worth the wait! It is still from Naruto's point of view, and there may be OOCness despite my efforts to write all characters IC. It is shorter than the other two instalments, but I didn't want to add anything just for the sake of increasing the word count. I hope it is enjoyable nevertheless!

-The same important points as in previous parts apply.

I'd like to thank all the people who reviewed the story; it was always very exciting to read your comments! Also thank you very much to all who favourited, alerted and read as well.

**Replies to reviews of readers not logged in:**

**- **SUPERANON: Thank you very much! Glad to hear that it intrigued you :)

- N.V.9: Thank you very much! Here is the next part for your enjoyment :)

- SenpaiNoSasuke: Thank you!

**Warnings: **Some blood and gore. More cheesiness.

**Disclaimer:** Naruto and its characters is the property of Masashi Kishimoto. I'm only borrowing and torturing them a little.

* * *

_**Itachi's Dubious Plan**_

_**Part 3**_

_**By PandoraVII**_

Even with all the care Sasuke took not to jostle Naruto, it was still in a haze of pain that he arrived back at Konoha. Thankfully Sasuke's pace slowed, which merely caused Naruto's body to sway to the smooth rhythm of his walk instead of the unpreventable jarring bounce caused when he ran, which had sent near constant rending pain through his chest.

Something else was also wrong with Naruto, and had been worsening the more time passed. After a full day and a night of Sasuke running full speed to Konoha, Naruto felt tired. Absolutely, completely, dead tired, the way he usually felt when colours began blurring and resolving on and off in front of his eyes, and no amount of blinking would make the technicolour smear right itself.

He was sure that if his eyes were indeed open, the view would have been as unpleasant.

And he couldn't sleep.

His thoughts were sludgy and slow to arrange themselves enough to be understandable, if they did at all. Sometimes he would find himself in the middle of a hallucination, as if his brain was trying to make him dream while awake. So he settled for merely observing what went on beyond his closed eyelids with his remaining senses as best he could. It was hard, because his thoughts kept getting in the way, breaking his concentration and making him miss chunks of time, but he did his best.

He could hear noise. Sasuke's voice, flat and cutting. "—et me in, the Hokage should have given me clearance…you don't…there…"

A lot of movement ensued. Once or twice Sasuke's grip turned bruising on his shoulders. A door banged open.

Tsunade Baa-Chan. Gasping "…Uchiha…what…dead?"

_That must mean I'm back home with Sasuke…is he here…where is the teme…always running away and hurting…hurting…Sakura Kakashi the team…where…what…_

Words were exchanged, getting louder before tapering off. Naruto felt Sasuke's arms tighten around him several times as an image of Shukaku and Gaara arguing about the colour of his hair marched across his closed eyelids. Sakura came along and told him that she could use her hair for emergency rations as it was made out of bubblegum.

"—et him to the bed now! Shizune, go and see if you can find anything in the library…this…it…yesterday!"

Movement. Walking. He was lowered onto a soft surface.

_So tired…sleep, just want to…no, no…Sasuke…where…no don't I don't want…where…is… _

Warm hands, familiar after touching him almost constantly the last two days, lifted him into a sitting position. Feminine hands grasped at his ripped Jacket and tank top, pulling them all the way off. He was lowered back to the bed. His mind cleared for an instant as the pain worsened. A large hand closed over his on the opposite side from where he could feel the presence of the woman…Tsunade. He'd be okay. He'd be

_fine she'll take care of it will she take care of him…Sasuke where…Tsunade don't_

Pain coloured his vision with bright sparks as something was peeled off his chest. The sparks turned into animated globs that stretched and drifted around in hypnotising patterns as the pain faded.

Chakra, familiar, strong and soothing, rushed through him in a diagnostic scan. A door burst open again.

"Shizune, answers!" Tsunade ordered, voice containing an urgency he'd only heard once or twice.

"It was…blade…chakra channelled through…depending upon…be fatal or…" He couldn't catch everything Shizune said. Or anyone, really.

"How…hell…fix…damn it?" Tsunade sounded like her fuse would blow anytime now. "…been too long… this…now!"

"…on't know…bonds…" Shizune said, frantic as Tsunade.

_Why…why are you upset, Baa-Chan? Ugh…so tiiireeed…Sasuke…_now why was he thinking about the teme again? _Sasuke…Sasuke, he_

He became aware of the hum of Sasuke's baritone from right beside him. "…told Kakashi…no idea…do…work? I'm not…expert here…"

_He's here Sasuke's here home Sasuke _

"…Shizune will be backup…full range of supplies here?" Tsunade was using her Hokage Voice. Shizune fired of an affirmative.

"…no time to waste…" Fingers plied his eyelids open, and Naruto moaned at the effect of the light on his exhausted eyes.

Something blocked out the light. It looked familiar…and spots of red colour seemed to be appearing in the face area.

"—now, Uchiha."

_Sasuke?_

The noises were fading around him.

_So…tired…Aaah…finally…get some sleep_

Floating in the dark, Naruto slowly became aware of the cold, concrete surface beneath him, the cold metal around his wrists. He couldn't pull himself from sleep even if he wanted to.

That familiar baritone was nearby, and he relaxed further. Sasuke would take care of everything. Tsunade would as well.

Metal rattled. Chakra surged. The shackles jerked around his arms before disappearing, and then, then something was welling up inside him, something he hadn't realised was missing, but rather registered as an emptiness needing to be filled. It bubbled through him, effervescent tingling spreading through his body to his fingertips.

The atmosphere seemed to draw in towards him, before pulsing outwards. The world shook with a resounding double thud. A growl sow low in pitch that it only registered as a vibration in his very bones rumbled nearby, building into a full throated roar that was deafening as thunder. Strangely, the sear of corrosive chakra that usually crept outwards with the sound didn't accompany it.

Amongst the sound, the comforting drone of Sasuke's voice had been overwhelmed completely, but at the last moment, when even the roaring faded, Naruto once more felt hands grasping the sides of his face, thumbs stroking over his cheeks.

He almost seemed to slam back into his body in reality, though he knew he hadn't moved.

Then he _breathed_. A deep pull of air into his lungs; he could feel his chest rise along with a tide of agony at breathing so deeply, but he breathed nevertheless, before his consciousness finally faded into absolute blackness, oblivious to the commotion around him.

* * *

Sometimes he heard voices.

Naruto could never hear precisely what the speakers said, but they were there, at the edge of his perception. He could recognise some of them. Tsunade was the most common, and Shizune. Several times he thought he heard Jiraiya, but it couldn't be him, he sounded way too serious to be the perverted Sannin Naruto knew.

Kakashi's lazy drawl sometimes made itself known as well. Naruto was sure he was dreaming because of that and the fact that he'd even heard some of the other Genin from his group.

He had no way of telling time, only the voices, which came and went at irregular intervals with blank, peaceful spaces in between.

Two voices were conspicuously absent during these dreams.

The first was Sakura. Usually she was one of the constants in his life, but this time she wasn't there. He wasn't very concerned; somehow the knowledge that she was on a mission drifted in the back of his mind whenever her absence was registered.

Then there was another. A smooth, self assured if slightly arrogant baritone that reminded Naruto of trust and betrayal at the same time. The same voice the lack of which made his rest troubled and a sense of unease settle deep in his gut.

Every time he heard voices, he clung to them for as long as he was able, searching. But he never did hear it.

Eventually, the uneasiness was replaced by dread.

Dread was supplanted by depression.

Naruto couldn't really remember why he'd been so anxious to wake up in the first place. He was so _tired_. So he embraced the darkness he had battled before.

Sometimes Naruto dreamed.

He dreamt of Itachi, crouching over him as he lay on the ground, a knife in his chest. He would reach for the hilt, gently curling his fingers around it, to suddenly wrench it around, twisting it inside Naruto until the pain drove him insane; while he whispered in his ears about what he'd do to Sasuke as his vision faded.

Sasuke was there a few times. The first time, Naruto was lying in a forest, bleeding and unable to move. Sasuke came and stared at him for an interminable time, expression frightfully blank. Sometimes he'd turn around and walk away. Naruto would try to call for him, but nothing came out.

Other times he'd unsheathe the katana on his belt with otherworldly patience, inspecting the blade for tiny flaws, before slowly drawing a line of fiery pain across Naruto's neck. Naruto would die gagging on his own blood, watching Sasuke take out a cloth and clean his blade. Every time, he'd sink back into the abyss, only to be drawn back into a dream.

The voices were no more.

Or so Naruto thought.

He was drifting between one dream and another, feeling weightless but at the same time heavy and lax, when he became aware of a sound. A low hum, which was slowly but steadily resolving itself into the low timbre of a voice. Naruto shied way from the disturbance, but it didn't leave him alone.

Consciousness was starting to creep up on him, niggling at his mind with irritating insistence. If that annoying voice could just leave him—

Wait.

That voice.

No, it couldn't be.

What would he be doing here? He'd left, long ago, and he wasn't coming back.

His ears must be damaged.

Right?

The darkness became an enemy again. Where it had been forcefully pushing him away before, it suddenly felt like it wasn't pushing enough, like it was, in fact, clinging to him. A fragile bubble of hope grew in his chest no matter how much he tried to convince himself he would be disappointed.

Emerging from unconsciousness was uncharacteristically hard for someone like Naruto, who was up and running days after getting a hole blasted through his shoulder. It was like swimming through quicksand. It tried to suck him under with all its might, and by the time he could more or less feel his body and the soft surface under him, his strength was drained.

Then a hand covered his where it lay on a blanket; fingers curling slightly around his own, grounding him. The quicksand disappeared as if it had never been; the only sign of it the fatigue making Naruto's limbs feel like lead weights.

Something hard and awkward lay over his upper lip, sticking partially into his nose. A soft, constant beep made itself know to his left. And to his right, he could hear the soft, steady breathing of the owner of the hand that covered his. The grip felt familiar somehow, and Naruto got the feeling it had been a lot warmer the last time he felt it. Naruto himself was comfortable, neither warm nor cold. The only discomfort he felt came from a muted pain in his chest and the pinch of a needle in his arm.

Why wasn't he speaking? What if it wasn't him? It might have been Kakashi…he had thought he'd heard him too, through his sleepy haze.

The fingers around his squeezed a little. Someone sighed.

Naruto spent a moment trying to gather his strength and his failing hope. The longer the silence lasted, the feebler it became.

His train of thoughts was broken when a door opened with a click and a whoosh. The hand disappeared from his. Someone walked into the room, approaching the person beside Naruto.

"So, I'm back. This should have everything you need." It was Kakashi.

Which meant whoever was beside him wasn't Kakashi and the person he heard…could it be?

Whatever the Copy Nin had brought thudded as he put it on the floor. "Here are the papers." Something was transferred from Kakashi to the other person. A folder was opened and papers rustled. It was put down on the surface beside Naruto, presumably a bedside table.

"Thanks. For everything." Sasuke said.

Sasuke.

Naruto's mind was blank from shock. For a moment, he couldn't think or comprehend anything. Even though he had hoped for it, he'd never really _believed_ it.

"No problem. It was no small feat to get you out in under two weeks, if I say so myself. How is he?"

"I wouldn't know. I only just got here." Friendly as ever.

Naruto couldn't take it anymore. He _had _to see for himself.

"Ah…I was told he hadn't woken up yet, but—" Kakashi stopped speaking. A tense silence descended on the room and Naruto felt the weight of two experienced ninja's stares on him.

"Did he just—"

Kakashi already knew what he was asking. "Yes. I saw it too."

Naruto groaned. It was taking more effort than he thought to open his eyes. But he wouldn't give up, he had to see—

The light was blinding, after having his eyes closed for so long. His vision was blurred, and he blinked owlishly in an attempt to clear it. Naruto's thoughts were muddled, and he knew Tsunade must have given him the good stuff for the Kyuubi Jinchuriki to be this out of it. That and the knife wound—which had somehow still not healed—in his chest, of course.

Two people were standing next to the bed. He rolled his head to the side, staring through still-blurry eyes.

One of the figures, toward the foot of the bed, was definitely Kakashi. His silver hair was pretty unique, and along with the Jounin vest, the mask, and the headband tilted at a rakish angle over his left eye, there was no mistaking him.

The other blurred figure was also definitely Sasuke. He had the same duck-butt hair, only a little longer. Same strange outfit (it always boggled Naruto's mind that Sasuke would wear something like that), same pitch black, unreadable eyes and stoic face. Same mouth, so well suited to arrogant smirking.

_What—What—Sasuke's back? Wha—how—_

Then the memories came flooding back. Itachi. The knife. Lying helpless in the forest. Sasuke, _crying_ and turning into a total wreck. Kakashi coming along. Sasuke carrying him around like a baby.

"Naruto…Naruto! You alright?" Naruto's vacant eyes turned to regard his sensei. "I know it's a bit of a shock, right? You must be wondering what Sasuke's doing here," Kakashi said.

Huh. His expression must've been a lot worse than he thought. But it wasn't because he was wondering. Oh, no, he remembered everything, but he sure as hell wasn't going to let them know he had been awake through the whole excruciating experience. He was actually surprised that Sasuke had deigned to stay in Konoha.

For the time being.

Kakashi was still speaking, and Sasuke was engrossed with the bed sheet draped over Naruto's chest. "…in the forest. He thought you were dead. Eventually I came looking because you were gone too long, and found the both of you. Sasuke brought you home for treatment a little over a week ago."

Neither of them said anything. Naruto merely kept his gaze fixed on Kakashi, afraid to look at Sasuke and maybe read in his eyes that he'd leave. Kakashi spoke up again.

"Naruto?" He tried, after a few seconds.

Naruto closed his eyes before he asked; unwilling to see the regret that might soon be crossing Kakashi's face, and the anger—or worse, the blankness—that would cloud Sasuke's. His voice was hoarse from disuse and his throat was dry; he had to try twice before anything came out, and settled for just one word.

"…Staying?"

The silence stretched. Naruto's heart plummeted.

It was Kakashi that broke it.

"Well, since Sasuke here seems to have something stuck in his throat, I'll tell you. Sasuke has found that arrangements in Sound weren't what he thought; Orochimaru planned on using him for his replacement body. And when he found you and brought you back, he decided he'd rather be a part of the team again, and help to keep Akatsuki off your back. It's also his best bet on finding Itachi. He's staying, Naruto."

Naruto could only lay in silence, his throat tight. If his eyes were open they'd be misting over. Relief bloomed in his chest, making it ache.

_Finally, my promise has been kept, even if not entirely by me. And he's back…_

Sasuke's voice was flat when he finally spoke, and he startled Naruto a little. "Who was it?"

For a moment Naruto's drug muddled brain didn't know what Sasuke was asking, but then he realised. His brow furrowed. Naruto could imagine how Sasuke would react when he heard who it was, and he needed to make a point that Itachi hadn't wanted to kill him in the first place. That the Itachi he'd met didn't match up with the one everyone made him out to be.

He cleared his throat, hoping he wasn't just making things worse. He wondered if it would be better to just say he didn't remember, but the name had already left his mouth.

"…Itachi."

When nothing happened for a few seconds, Naruto tentatively opened his eyes. They widened when he saw Sasuke's face.

His eyes had turned red as his Sharingan activated, and his face was like a mask. Lips pressed together, jaw muscles jumping, and eyes still staring unseeingly at the sheets with such black hatred that Naruto was surprised he hadn't burned a hole through them. The straps of his armguards creaked from the pressure of his clenched fists, and every muscle was as taut as a bow string. Naruto's heart lurched into his throat at the sight, and nausea curled in his stomach when the killing intent leaking out from Sasuke hit him.

This was exactly what he'd dreaded.

Abruptly Sasuke spun around and took a step towards the window. Kakashi appeared in front of him, grasping his shoulder in a white knuckled grip.

"You know you can't leave Konoha now, Sasuke. Where would you go? How will you find him?" Kakashi reasoned.

Sasuke looked like he was considering killing Kakashi; whether because his arguments were true or because he was in his way was uncertain.

"He didn't want to kill me," Naruto said. His voice was still hoarse and for a moment he thought they wouldn't hear him.

Their heads snapped towards Naruto as if they'd forgotten he was there, and both of them headed back towards the bed.

"Well, of course not until he had the Kyuu—" Kakashi started.

"He didn't want that either."

"Then what did he want? To torture you?" Sasuke asked flatly. His eyes turned distant and cold, no doubt as he remembered what Itachi had done to him.

"No."

"If he didn't want to kill you, take the Kyuubi, or torture you, why else would he attack you?" Sasuke looked completely confused and angry, and Kakashi's gaze was sharp and considering.

Naruto struggled to get his thoughts together. Should he tell Sasuke what his brother had intended? No. If he did, Sasuke would most likely leave Konoha in an attempt to do the exact opposite of what Itachi wanted him to do.

"I—I'm not sure," Naruto started uncertainly, "he isn't what he seems. He actually told me he was sorry. I think there's something going on with him that we don't know about. He seemed to want to keep the Kyuubi away from Akatsuki as well. Sasuke…he…he seemed to care about you." It was becoming harder to talk, tiredness taking over. The pain in his chest was also becoming less muted.

"It changes _nothing_—" Sasuke started, the hate returning to his eyes, but Kakashi interrupted.

"You can continue this later, Sasuke. Speculating about that can wait until Naruto feels better."

Surprisingly, Sasuke took a deep breath and unclenched his hands slowly. He finally looked at Naruto's face, his expression calmer, though sombre. His eyes raked over Naruto and his brow furrowed slightly.

This time Naruto was the one staring at the sheets, avoiding his intense stare and trying to gather his strength.

"Well," Naruto heard Kakashi move to the door. "I'd better get going. Things to do, people to see. Someone will probably be by tomorrow for your full report." the door shut with a muted click.

Silence, a little tense, filled the room.

He carefully lifted his eyes and looked up to catch Sasuke's gaze still on him. Naruto glanced away, pretending to be studying the room. He vaguely registered flowers, no doubt from the Yamanaka shop, and cards, and the usual hospital paraphernalia. But he wasn't really seeing anything until his eyes landed on a pitcher of water, and a glass with a bendy straw.

The ache of Naruto's dry throat seemed to amplify. He stared at the pitcher, mentally willing it to float towards him; he knew that if he still had trouble even keeping his eyes open he would never be able to get up and reach for it.

As he watched, Sasuke reached out a pale hand, long fingers closing around the neck of the pitcher and pouring water in the glass.

"Here," He lifted Naruto's head with his other hand, supporting the back of his head and neck as he took long pulls from the straw. It was embarrassing not to be able to drink by himself, but the taste of the water and the ease of the ache in his throat overruled it.

When he finished drinking, he sighed as Sasuke lowered his head back to the pillow, spent. The only thing keeping him from passing out like a light was the nervousness coiling in his stomach.

"Thanks," he murmured, a little awkwardly, eyes closing by themselves.

"Anytime." Sasuke's voice was as steady as ever, but the tension remained. The chair beside the bed creaked as he lowered himself into it.

"You think…you can get me some ramen?"

"When you can walk there."

"If—"

"On your own legs."

_Damn._

"…You gonna lose the outfit now? Looks like…you're wearing…a…purple…diaper."

The arms of the chair creaked ominously.

"At least I don't look like an inmate."

"…bright and noticeable. Practically…screams…Hokage."

"Dobe."

"…Teme…"

The tension melted away.

As he relaxed, drifting deeper into sleep, he heard the chair creak again, and felt a presence nearby as Sasuke leaned over him.

"You know," Sasuke whispered, breath tickling Naruto's ear, "If Orochimaru didn't want me only for my Sharingan, and Itachi wasn't after you?"

Naruto mentally tensed, but a tiny, almost imperceptible smile appeared on his lips as Sasuke finished what he was saying.

"Even then, I would have stayed."

_The End_

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Thank you very much for reading! Reviews and constructive criticism are welcome. :)


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